What if one supplier stood for 95% of the firearms market in the USA? That´s the fact in Russia, and the selected company is Kalashnikov. Concern Kalashnikov simply is the largest Russian manufacturing company, producing assault and sniper rifles, guided artillery [Read More…]
Earlier, we have covered the first part of the video series published by Kalashnikov Media telling about the Hungarian AK rifles. The entire series is called “Kalashnikov: Around the World” and it tells about AKs produced in different countries of the world. [Read More…]
The sanctions on Russian companies have hit the American AK enthusiast hard – no longer can we import inexpensive Izhevsk Kalashnikovs to feed the beast. Yet, there is a silver lining: Domestic AK production is on the rise to meet the demand, and one company in [Read More…]
At the end of the past month, we reported about the adoption of AK-12, AK-15, AEK-971, and AEK-973 rifles by the Russian military. Back then it was not clear if they are going to adopt the RPK-16 light machine gun, too. Today, Kalashnikov Concern and TASS [Read More…]
Kalashnikov USA, orphaned stateside importing partner of Kalashnikov Concern, brought their latest prototype and production guns to the 2018 SHOT Show, and there is good reason to be excited. Chief among them: The KR-9 9mm AK carbine. Here’s one of those [Read More…]
Kalashnikov Media shared these pictures of decorated Kalashnikovs. The pictures are from Iraqi Kurdistan. If your Kalashnikov, and you, are freezing, and you’ve got time on your hands, why not decorate it with a sweater? Hand-painted magazines “YPJ” [Read More…]
Matt Rittman, a 3D motion designer from Waukee, Iowa, has recently published a beautiful 3D animation demonstrating how the mechanism of a typical AK rifle works. Animations of the AK mechanism has been around for a while. Nevertheless, this one is rather well [Read More…]
Kalashnikov Concern has released a video of their MP-446C VIKING-M competition pistol in action via their Kalashnikov Media site. The video shows the pistol running some drills and breaks down some of the weapon’s features and attributes. Designed for competition [Read More…]
The Cold War is famous as the squaring off of two superpowers: The United States, and the Soviet Union, and their duel-by-proxy in Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas. The standard rifles of each side, as well, became proxies: On the Soviet side, the famous AK-47 [Read More…]
In the ’40s, the Soviet Union has developed its intermediate cartridge (7.62x39mm) and adopted a number of firearms chambered in this caliber – the Simonov self-loading rifle (SKS), Kalashnikov’s “avtomat” (AK-47) and Degtyaryov light [Read More…]
This is not the average AK we normally see, is it? DNO Firearms DX-7 is an interesting take on redesigning and modernizing the AK platform at the same time keeping the features and parts that don’t need to be changed. The most significant change is obviously the [Read More…]
A TFB reader sent us these photographs of a craft produced 7.62x25mm Tokarev submachine gun from Pakistan. The submachine gun is a select fire, blowback operated, Kalashnikov based derivative most likely originating from the gun making village of Darra Adam Khel from [Read More…]
Col. Greg Dillon sat down and talked with us about the small arms that himself and the men he was commanding were faced with during the course of his two tours in Vietnam during the conflict in the 1960s. Everything from AKs, B52s, and RPGs are lightly discussed in this informative episode. Although [Read More…]
We’ve covered the story of the Dillon AK on TFB previously on the blog and due to the efforts of a faithful reader that actually put us in touch with Col. Dillon we were able to actually sit down and interview him about his service in the 1st of the 7th Cavalry, infamous for heroic […] [Read More…]
Although the Russian Kalashnikov assault rifle is the one that is most famous, it is arguably the Chinese Type 56 AK that made the bigger impression on the world in the 1960s and 70s. This rifle was initially developed with Russian technical assistance just before the [Read More…]
In the mid-2000s, India began looking for a carbine to replace their 9mm L2A3 Sterling submachine guns which they inherited from the United Kingdom. Two weapons were developed, one by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), and another by the Armament Research and Development [Read More…]
In the mid-2000s, India began looking for a carbine to replace their 9mm L2A3 Sterling submachine guns which they inherited from the United Kingdom. Two weapons were developed, one by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), and another by the Armament Research and Development [Read More…]
The Firearm Blog is proud to present a line of unique pictures of the new and improved Kalashnikov AK-100M series. The AK-100M is the modernized version of the AK-100, with the obvious addition of the “M” in the name. It’s interesting to see some of [Read More…]
If you want a Mini-14 buy one. If you want a carbine for a specific purpose, however, and provided have access to virtually any other modern carbine design, pick just about anything else. I say this not to disparage Ruger or the people who own Minis, but because [Read More…]
According to Russian news agency TASS, Russian state corporation Rosoboronexport has decided not to take part in the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs tender of procurement of about 20,000 assault rifles chambered in 7.62x39mm caliber. The TASS source (undisclosed) said [Read More…]
Kalashnikov Concern have shown off a rare example of Mikhail Kalashnikov’s automatic pistol developed in the late 1940s. Kalashnikov’s pistol was beaten by Igor Stechkin’s entry into the trials, the APS. In the late 1940s, the Soviet Union began a [Read More…]
Before we all go crazy let us make this clear, the online ordering does NOT include any real, working firearms. According to Kalashnikov it is not possible to convert any of these mock-ups to fire live ammunition. Still it’s interesting to see Kalashnikov opening [Read More…]
Kalashnikov Media, Kalashnikov Concern’s dedicated media website, has been ramping up its releases recently. Its latest video features a hair-raising demo by Kalashnikov’s demonstration team. The Kalashnikov Group held the demo on Armourers’ Day, a [Read More…]
Polish small arms company Wytwornia Broni Popinski (Popinski’s Weapon Manufacturing), has brought to market a short barrel (10.2 inch barrel, compared to the 16.3 inch full length Jack from WBP) Kalashnikov chambered in 7.62x39mm, called the “Mini [Read More…]
The Russian PKM: Arguably the best general purpose machine gun in the world, it combines a robust reliability with best-in-class light weight. Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons recently released two video overviews of the weapon, giving us a good enough excuse as any to [Read More…]
Kalashnikov has implemented a development and investment strategy until 2020 with a target to broaden the range of competitive products as well as increasing the overall production process efficiency. Kalashnikov started already in 2014 and aim at providing updates on [Read More…]
The following is an article that was originally written in Russian by TFB contributor Maxim Popenker, and Andrey Ulanov, and translated to English by Peter Samsonov. With their permission, I have replicated the text here, and edited it, for the enrichment of you, our [Read More…]
In this article Kalashnikov concern takes the opportunity to answer some of the Frequently Asked Questions about the production and development of Kalashnikov rifles. There are quite a few details revealed that I had no idea about. For instance, where can I find more [Read More…]
Thanks to this blog I’ve heard of the KGB Rectal gun (the comments are hilarious), but KGB’s “Escort Operational briefcase” is new to me. It shares some similarities with the HK MP5K Operational Briefcase which I think all firearms afficionados [Read More…]
Sanctions aside, things seem to be going well for Russian firearms export. Rosoboronexport is the only state organization in Russia for exporting the entire range of military, dual-use products and services and technologies. The Director General of Rosoboronexport, [Read More…]